A HANDY mobile app that has helped Wyre Forest District Council workers inspect and maintain parks is now being adopted across authority car parks.

Officers from the council’s depot in Green Street, Kidderminster are using the technology to carry out statutory inspections of car parks and keep a record of them and monitor safety and risk issues.

Council bosses say the app will help them save time and money and has been successfully adopted by Parks and Play Area inspectors since January this year.

To complete an inspection on the App, a series of questions is worked through, usually accompanied by a photograph of the site in question, each with a built in service prompt if anything significant changes in terms of the risk.

An average inspection using the App takes around 10 minutes and as every recording is collected, the data cannot be overwritten until the problem is fully resolved and recorded as such.

Adam Stockhall, Place Co-ordinator at Wyre Forest District Council said: "The Play Inspection App has already completely transformed the parks and play inspection work programme.

“Using technology in this way is definitely the way forward improving Council efficiencies where we can. The parks inspection process has been reduced by four steps to two, which has saved us valuable time and money.

“We are very proud of this transformation and we are now taking it into our wider applications, starting with the council’s 22 car parks."

Councillor Ian Hardiman, Wyre Forest District Council's Cabinet Member for Operational Services said: "We take our corporate risk management seriously and we are continuing to drive forward improvements in the efficiency of how information is collected and stored.

“Car parks are next to be transformed in terms of our inspection and maintenance programme.”